On this Site

Ironville

IRONVILLE is a populous township, in the parish of
Alfreton, half a mile north from Codnor Park stations on
the Erewash section of the Midland and Great Northern
railways, and 3½ miles south-east from Alfreton, in the
Mid division of the county, Scarsdale hundred, Belper
union, Alfreton petty sessional division and county court
district, and in 1850 was formed, into an ecclesiastical
parish from the civil parishes of Alfreton, Pentrich, Heanor
and Codnor, in this county, and Selston, in Nottinghamshire,
Codnor Park, though a separate township, being
within the ecclesiastical parish, rural deanery of Alfreton,
archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. The
township is close to the Cromford canal, and the Pinxton
canal commences here. The place is lighted with gas
and supplied with water by the Butterley Company.

Christ Church, erected in 1851 by the Butterley Company,
is an edifice of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts,
south porch and an embattled western tower containing
a clock and one bell: in the chancel are three
memorial windows to William Jessop esq. and in the
baptistery, a memorial window and tablet, erected in
1873 by the parishioners, to Francis Wright esq.: in the
south transept is a stained window placed in 1871 by the
Rev. W.E. Littlewood M.A. then vicar; and in the north
transept a memorial tablet to the Rev. John Casson, first
vicar of this parish: in 1885 the choir was completely
renovated and new stalls erected: there are 600 sittings.
The register dates from the year 1850. The living is a
vicarage, net yearly value £250, with residence, in the gift
of five trustees, and held since 1887 by the Rev.
Rowland Paul Hills M.A. and LL.D. of Queens' College,
Cambridge. There is a Free Methodist chapel here,
built in 1874, and seating about 300; and a Primitive
Methodist chapel, built in 1883-4, and seating 150. The
cemetery consists of about 3 acres.

Most of the
inhabitants are employed in the steel and iron works and
at the smelting furnaces, immense quantities of iron being
wrought in this neighbourhood; there are also collieries.
A weekly market is held on Saturday. In the neighbourhood
is an extensive park, the property of the Butterley
Co. used by the inhabitants of this district as a recreation
ground, and in the centre is a monumental pillar erected
in 1854 by the workmen and friends of the Butterley Co.
to William Jessop esq, the founder of the works. The
Butterley Co. and the Midland and Great Northern Railway
Cos. are the chief landowners. The soil is clayey;
subsoil, chiefly marl and clay. The area is 1,407 acres;
rateable value included with Alfreton; the population in
1891 was 3,298.[Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, 1895]